


When Did You Get Good with Kids?

by pushupindrag



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Animals, Character Mentions, Fluff, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-12 06:52:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3347642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pushupindrag/pseuds/pushupindrag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four things that don't treat Bucky with caution or worry that he greatly appreciates.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <i>It starts with a dog. One with three legs, patchy fur, fleas and a knack for by-passing Jarvis. The mutt follows Bucky home to the tower after Bucky had thrown half his bagel at it, and sets up camp on Bucky’s couch until Bucky returns from his shower.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	When Did You Get Good with Kids?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on like three other things right now, but this kept getting in the way so I wrote it to get rid of it and it didn't turn out as planned at all but it's here now and I kinda hate it so...
> 
> Now with a second work in the universe [Settle down for the Day](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4514367/)
> 
> Un'beted so any mistakes are my own, please tell me if you find any :)

**Animals:**  
It starts with a dog. One with three legs, patchy fur, fleas, and a knack for by-passing Jarvis. The mutt follows Bucky home to the tower after Bucky had thrown half his bagel at it, and sets up camp on Bucky and Steve's couch until Bucky returns from his shower.  
  
“What the hell?” Bucky asks, and the skinny mutt just thumps his tail against the couch cushions excitedly at him. Bucky continues to stare at the dog who looks hopefully back up at him, before hopping off the couch to sit by the assassin’s feet, butt wagging now along with his tail. “Steve isn’t going to be pleased” Bucky grunts, but herds the dog into the bathroom anyway, helping him into the tub to get a shower and clean him up. He wasn’t just going to throw the dog back out onto the street, little guy couldn’t fend for himself with only three legs and his bones showing.

Bucky names it Bagel on account of the food being the dog’s favourite treat and it sleeps at the bottom of Bucky’s bed and follows him wherever he goes. Steve doesn’t end up minding.

Bucky takes Bagel everywhere, to the gym within the tower, on his jogs, and all the pet friendly shops. It’s Sam who brings up the idea of getting Bagel trained as service dog, but Bucky declines. Bagel was fine as he was, and Bucky wouldn’t have it any other way. He liked that the dog trusted him implicitly, that the dog didn’t see him as a threat or treated him with caution and suspicion like almost everybody else did.

It was nice to have another thing trust him other than Steve, who looked at him without judgement and didn’t mind if he punched walls occasionally or shouted in his sleep. Bagel was there right alongside Steve, licking his face to get him to calm down while Steve rubbed his back or kissed his hair.

It also meant that Lucky, Barton’s dog, had another dog to play with when Clint bought him round. Which then led to Barton trusting him more because  
“You gotta trust a guy with a dog as dumb at that mutt” And Bucky had gotten offended on Bagels behalf before pursuing a dirty jokes war with Clint that was still ongoing, neither man unwilling to lose.

It felt nice to be trusted by another human being instead of just his dog and his boyfriend.

His _boyfriend_. That was new. Well, new-ish. Because Bucky remembers him and Steve being _something_ before the war, they just couldn’t label it. But they could now, which was nice. It was good having Steve back, great even. Steve helped him a lot, and it felt good to be able to love him freely, even if he was still a stubborn git most of the time. This led to Bucky being familiar with worry again, as Steve refused to go and see a therapist or even talk to Sam about his own problems and worries. They would get there eventually.

He starts acquiring a multitude of fish along with Bagel after he finds a small fish bowl outside of his and Steve’s apartment door with a tiny goldfish in it. He tuts when he finds it before bringing it inside, putting it on the counter out of Bagel’s reach before going online to look for large fish tanks with an actual filtration system.

He gets one delivered along with three more goldfish.

Steve names them all.  
“Bucky, you named our dog Bagel, I’m naming the fish.”

“Pudge is a stupid name for a fish” Bucky snorts as Steve explains their names later that evening.  
“Pudge controls the weather” Steve shrugs back and Bucky stares blankly at him, confused. “You haven’t seen Lilo and Stitch have you?” Bucky shakes his head and Steve gawps before dragging him to the couch.

“Jarvis, would you please play the first Lilo and Stitch” He asks and the AI complies happily. “See, the pure gold fish is called Lilo, the smallest one is called Stitch, the largest called Nani and the dotted one is Pudge. They’re all characters on here. Now watch!” He points to the tv screen and Bucky doesn’t bother to mention that Steve was the one that was taking his attention up. Instead he sits back and watches, Steve’s arm securely around him with Bagel spread across their laps.

**Children:**  
He was allowed to shop on his own now, and he liked going to malls, just so he could switch his brain off for a while whilst he focused on different noises and voices. It was one of the things that had helped him adapt, despite everybody saying that crowds probably weren’t good for him.

It was cold out so he didn’t mind wearing his usual leather jacket to cover up his arm, but he didn’t bother wearing gloves anymore. He found that people were often too pre-occupied with their own lives to notice his metal hand.

So he wanders around the mall, hair scraped back into a bun at the back of his head so he wouldn’t have to bother brushing it out of his face.

It was a relatively good day. He’s just wandering really, he didn’t need anything. But he had money on him, just in case. So he goes around the usual clothes stores, looking for more t-shirts for Steve. Steve had clicked on about everybody buying him shirts that were a size or two small, so he had gotten more baggy ones. Bucky had planned to hide them and replace them with identical too small shirts. Barton would back him up, and Natasha would too. She didn’t trust him, she didn’t trust anybody. But if pranks were being played, she was probably there.

So he’s searching for shirts in the otherwise quiet store when he feels a tug on his trouser leg. He looks down, scowling at the intrusion to his day before he sees that it’s a kid holding onto his shirt, nose snotty and eyes leaking.  
“Hey” He says quietly, crouching down to the child who only looked about six. He gently pries the hand away to look at the child properly “hey kid” He keeps his voice soft, ducking his head to see the child who’s head was down as they continued sniffing.

They finally look up, and Bucky finds that it’s a little boy.  
“You lost kid?” He asks eventually and the child nods,  
“My mom’s somewhere, but then she wasn’t and I don’t know where she is!” This starts a fresh wave of tears as the kid throws himself at Bucky.

Unused to the affection from a stranger, no less a child, it takes Bucky a minute to hug back hesitantly.

He lets he kid cry for another minute before prising him away  
“Shall we go find her?” He asks, and the kids nods, grabbing his metal hand. He freezes, but the kid doesn’t even flinch so he curls his fingers around the child's and stands up, leading the child to where he knew the help point was.

“What’s your name kid?”  
“Jamie Smith” The kid had stopped crying now, but his voice was still wobbly.  
“Well Jamie Smith, how about I wait with you while we wait for you mom okay?”  
“Okay” Jamie waits, still clutching Bucky’s hand while Bucky asks for the lady at the reception to make an announcement and sits patiently with Jamie, the little boy kicking his legs off the plastic chair in a little waiting room while they wait.

“So, this stupid girl went and spilt paint on my table!” Jamie snorts “So I said that she needed to leave, and when she didn’t I pulled her hair. But I was the one that got into trouble even though the stupid girl ruined my painting! It was a reaaaalllllyyyyy nice one of a dog”  
“I like dogs” Bucky nods when Jamie looks up for approval  
“Yer! I was the one that got into trouble”  
“You shouldn’t have pulled her hair, even though she ruined your picture”  
“That’s what mom said”  
“Then you should really listen to your mom huh?” He smirks and Jamie huffs before running his fingers over Bucks hand, finally interested in the metal  
“Are you a robot?” Bucky winces  
“No”  
“Are you part robot?”  
“Yes”  
“That’s so cool! I wish I was part robot! Then girls wouldn’t spill their paint on my work”  
“You think it’s cool?” He was a little gobsmacked, everybody deemed it dangerous, not cool.  
“Duh.”

“JAMIE!” A shrill voice shouts and Jamie lurches from the chair into a slight woman’s arms  
“MOM!” Bucky smiles, standing up  
“Hello ma’am, my name’s James. I found your son and just wanted you know that it wasn’t just a random person who found him” He holds his hand out but gets pulled into a hug too.  
“Thank you for finding my son” She breathes, pulling away to smile up at him  
“It’s no problem ma’am” He didn’t expect that, he knew it must have looked a little shady.

“Bye Bucky!” Jamie calls as he goes to walk away, and he feels the kid run into him, arms around Bucky’s waist  
“Be good for your mom Jamie” He grins, patting the kids head before finally going on his way, able to go and get Steve his shirts.

He tells Steve’s what happened over dinner, and Steve grins widely  
“You were always good with kids” He says around a mouthful of pasta. “All of them loved you. You got a calming presence you know”  
“It’s cause they don’t know any better”  
“Eh” Steve shrugs “Kids are a good judge of character” He smiles again and goes back to his food. Letting Bucky mull it over.

It happens again when he and Clint are walking the dogs in the park along with Bruce, who said he needed to get away from Tony for a little while.

The kid runs slap bang into his leg and clings on for dear life before scaling him like a monkey, clinging onto his arm as he juggles them  
“THEY’RE BEING MEAN TO ME MR AND I LOST MY DAD AND EVERYBODY'S GONE!” The girl's younger than Jamie, but not by much. She’s certainly smaller though.

Clint takes a large step back along with Bruce who stare as Bucky automatically shushes the girl  
“Well, there aren't any nasty people now okay. How about we find your dad?”  
“Who’s you?” She asks, looking at him, realizing what she had done. He puts her down  
“My name’s Bucky, these are Clint and Bruce. We’ll keep you safe from the meanies okay”  
“Ok” She nods, before looking at Bagel and squealing “Is this your dog?” She questions and Bucky nods  
“You can walk him if you like, if you help us find your dad”  
“What’s his name?”  
“His name is Bagel”  
“That’s a silly name. I’m Stephanie”  
“Nice to meet you Stephanie” He hands her the lead and she ‘walks’ Bagel who happily trots beside her as she leads them to her dad. Bucky sees a few younger boys skulking around so he glares at them, they were probably the ones being mean to Stephanie.

They run off scared and Bucky smirks before tuning back in to Stephanie's babble. He liked listening to kids, there was no grey area with them.  
“And the lion was super loud when he roared, but he just stayed asleep most of the time” Stephanie continues to explain about her trip to the zoo as she leads them to her dad who looked harried with three other kids.

“The hell are you doing with my daughter?” He asks when he notices them  
“She ran into me” Bucky smooth’s over the situation “saying something about boys being mean to her?” He takes the lead from Stephanie’s hand who happily hands it over, patting Bagel on the head  
“Oh, thanks”  
“No problem”  
“BYE BUCKY! BYE BRUCE! BYE BAGEL! BYE CLINT!” Stephanie shouts before running off to play with her siblings.

Bucky turns away, grumbling about the father as the three continue their walk. Clint was staring  
“When did you get good with kids?”  
“Always have been.”

Steve laughs at the way Clint tells the tale  
“He had a little sister and if you ever needed a baby sitter, Bucky Barnes was the guy to go to. We always had kids around from the other apartments. They loved him”  
“They loved you too” Bucky shoves him gently “Always used to ask about you when you were sick”  
“Whatever” Steve blushes, shoving back.

**Robots:**  
Jarvis becomes Bucky’s best friend.

Bucky had taken to Jarvis, excited about the voice in the walls. Jarvis had startled Bucky at first but Bucky soon got over if after he realized that Jarvis was anything but a threat. Jarvis wasn’t scared of him either, and the AI was sarcastic enough that Bucky presumed he was more than just an AI.  
  
“Jarvis”  
“Yes Mr Barnes”  
“Could you please lock down the apartment” He was having a rough day today.  
“Certainly Mr Barnes”  
“Only allow Steve access”  
“Certainly Mr Barnes, but what about Bagel? Surely the dog will need to go to the other floors” Bucky smiles  
“And Bagel”  
“Very good sir” The voice threw him out of his funk a little, and he was able to get up from the corner enough to walk around the apartment.

“I have already checked for bugs sir”  
“Just need to check for myself Jarvis”  
“I can see that my checks aren’t good enough sir”  
“Stop being sarcastic Jarv”  
“I am sorry sir, I am programmed that way”  
“And the feeds are still down?”  
“Mainly, Mr Stark set up another one, it’s on the bookcase. Very obvious if you ask me Sir”  
“Was this one about spying or genuine risk?”  
“Spying I believe sir”  
“Point me to where it is?”  
“Just about the Harry Potter novels sir”  
“Stark's a bastard”  
“I have to agree with you sir” Bucky smiles again, putting his finger up to the camera before ripping it out, crushing the system between his hands.

“You want to run a check on the locks with me?”  
“Of course sir” They both run through the locks on the windows and doors, and once satisfied, Bucky collapses onto the couch.  
“Do you want me send up a bot with coffee sir?” Jarvis asks  
“Tony’s working on a Baymax isn’t he?”  
“I’m afraid so sir”  
“Will this one attack me again?”  
“This one does not have arms, but is more of a box with wheels”  
“Will this one catch fire?”  
“Mr Stark assures me that it won’t, but I would stand by with an extinguisher anyway”  
“Grant it access Jarvis” Bucky likes the grimy coffee Tony makes, it’s too strong and way too bitter. It tastes like home.

He pets the bot that comes up, whirring around Bagel who yawns at it lazily, making it beep in suprprise. It looks like a miniature Dum-E, without the arm but with just as many wires. It comes up to Bucky’s knee and has a hatch that he’s able to open  
  
_-drink and be merry robo-cop :)-_  
  
The note says on the mug and Bucky sniffs, the coffee not having alcohol in it. Tony just really loved coffee, evidently. The robot beeps around for a little longer, circling him and Bagel who eventually bats it away with his nose before the robot trundles back to the elevator once he knows that Bucky has his coffee and has patted the top of it with a small  
“Thank you.” Who knew robots appriciated/demanded manners?

“Was that another robot of Tonys?” Steve asks, stepping aside to let the robot into the elevator. Waving at it when it beeps at him. Bucky nods, gesturing to his coffee  
“Bad day? Jarvis said you had to check for bugs again”  
“Jarvis has a big mouth”  
“I resent that sir” Bucky waves a hand, and he knew that if Jarvis could laugh, he would be.

Bucky gains affection for Dum-E too while Tony is working on his arm. Mainly because it annoys Tony all to hell while being a clumsy nuisance. The robot was endearing, and Bucky enjoyed giving it things to do. He liked giving the robot things to do so it felt useful. And the happy noises it made, made everything worthwhile. He liked doing things that made him feel useful too, why should the robot be any different.

And Dum-E didn’t look at Bucky funny either like Stark did. He just whirled around, waving around cups of coffee or tools. Smacking Bucky happily around the head when he got too excited. Bucky liked the fact that something wasn’t scared about setting him off.

**Steve Rogers:**  
The best thing about the future was Steve Rogers. Hands down.

He was glad to have Steve back with him, in his arms at night, or across from him in the early morning before Steve went out for a run with Sam. They weren’t perfect, they still fought about Steve’s stupidity or Bucky’s new found love of bringing in stray animals to re-home unexpectedly. And Bucky and Sam were still trying to get Steve to a therapist. But they were great.

The sparring was better, seeing as though Bucky felt like he didn’t have to hold back. If the fight on the helicarrier was anything to go by. And if one of them did ever do some serious damage, neither minded too much. Making it up to each other with kisses and breakfast.

Steve didn’t treat him like glass, and would defend Bucky to his grave. He was the first to jump to Bucky’s defense if somebody made a remark he felt crossed a line and defended their relationship with bared teeth and a vicious bite against the press. He was able to just be ‘Bucky’ around Steve without worrying about how Steve would see him, or where he was hiding tranqs or whatever the tower had in its arsenal. Bucky adored him with everything he had.

“Fuck, Bagel!” Steve grumbles one morning, bruises on his neck fading fast. The dog grumbles back, annoyed at being shoved out of the bedroom.

Bucky just giggles, watching Steve’s ass as he walks before getting up too, body slamming Steve into the kitchen wall.  
“Fuck off Buck, too tired” Steve shoves him away but he’s smiling  
“What? I tired you out soldier” Bucky digs his fingers into Steve’s hips, grinding a little against Steve's ass as Steve swats him away laughing lowly himself, turning himself around.  
“Stop being loud and noisy an energetic it’s too fucking early” He buries his face into Bucky's neck, rubbing his sweaty hair against Bucky's chin before pulling back  
“You go out running this early”  
“It’s Saturday. Sam won’t run on a Saturday.”  
“So you decide to let me fuck you instead yer?” He leans against Steve with all his weight, leaning up to nip at Steve’s bottom lip  
“Course I did” Steve grins, before breaking away to laugh as Bucky gets a hand on his side “Go and feed your fish, I’ll feed fur face over here” Bagel was yapping around them at this point, unwilling to be ignored.

He was glad that animals, children and robots didn’t treat him like glass or recoil from him, but Steve’s opinion mattered most. And Steve didn’t treat him like that either.


End file.
